AN-70 aircraft will perform an exhibition flight at MAKS-2003

Valery Voskoboinikov, first deputy head of Rosaviakosmos and first deputy chairman of the MAKS-2003 Organising committee reported to RIA Novosti that AN-70 aircraft would perform an exhibition flight at the MAKS-2003 International Aviation and Space Salon thus refuting reports of a number of mass media on non-participation of that military and transport aircraft in exhibition flights. The Salon will start its work on 19 August in the city of Zhukovsky (Moscow region).

On Friday Valery Voskoboinikov reported to the RIA Novosti correspondent that "the Organising committee officially declared that no decision to prohibit AN-70 flights was taken due to lack of justifications for such a decision." Voskoboinikov indicated that "Antonov ANTK demonstrated AN-70 as an experimental aircraft presently undergoing the 2nd stage of state tests." According to him, exhibition flights of state, experimental and civil aviation sample aircraft during the aviation salon are carried out in accordance with the approved special flight operations instruction.

He stressed that "certainly, defective aircraft would not be allowed to take part in the flights and that was the common rule applied to every aircraft participating in exhibition flights. Still the Organising committee had no objections in this respect to that new Russian-Ukrainian aviation equipment."